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From presidents Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

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Response to Danbury Baptist Association (January 1, 1802)

Thomas Jefferson

Responding to a supportive letter from the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, Jefferson admires the "wall of separation between church and state" established by the First Amendment. The President wanted to reprimand the large number of clerics that mixed religion and politics in that part of the nation, especially those that publicly opposed his beliefs on the subject.

Word Cloud

This is a chart of the words used most frequently in this speech. The larger the
word, the more frequently that it was used.

Transcript

GENTLEMAN,

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.